NASA Begins Search for Phoenix Mars Lander

NASA plans to send its Mars Odyssey orbiter in search of radio signals from the Phoenix Mars Lander, silent since 2008, which NASA thinks has become a victim of the harsh Martian winter.

The odds are long, but NASA plans to begin searching Jan. 18 for the Phoenix
Mars Lander, which hasn't been heard from since it "completed five months
of studying an arctic Martian site in November 2008," the space agency
said in a news release Jan. 11. "The solar-powered lander operated two
months longer than its three-month prime mission during summer on northern
Mars."

Since then, though, the lander has not been heard from. "The lander's
hardware was not designed to survive the temperature extremes and ice-coating
load of an arctic Martian winter," NASA explained.

In hopes of making contact with the Phoenix, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will
listen for possible radio signals "approximately 10 times each day during
three consecutive days of listening this month and two longer listening
campaigns in February and March."

"We do not expect Phoenix to have survived, and therefore do not expect
to hear from it," Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for the
Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena,
Calif., said in the news release. "However, if Phoenix
is transmitting, Odyssey will hear it. We will perform a sufficient number of
Odyssey contact attempts that if we don't detect a transmission from Phoenix,
we can have a high degree of confidence that the lander is not active."

If Phoenix survived the harsh
Martian winter, NASA said, "it is expected to follow instructions
programmed on its computer. If systems still operate, once its solar panels [generated]
enough electricity to establish a positive energy balance, the lander would
periodically try to communicate with any available Mars relay orbiters in an
attempt to re-establish contact with Earth." The statement continued:

"The amount of sunshine at Phoenix's site is currently about the same as when
the lander last communicated, on Nov. 2, 2008, with the sun above the horizon about 17
hours each day. The listening attempts will continue until after the sun is
above the horizon for the full 24.7 hours of the Martian day at the lander's
high-latitude site. ...
If Odyssey does hear from Phoenix, the orbiter will attempt to lock onto the
signal and gain information about the lander's status. The initial task would
be to determine what capabilities Phoenix
retains, information that NASA would consider in decisions about any further
steps."